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Tuesday, October 25,1977
University Daily Kansan
Editorial Focus: Popular Culture
Pop answers too easy
A Top 40 song. Highly rated television shows. Best-selling paperback books. All are part of this nation's popular culture, and all feature American Americans most value: speed and money.
We want our entertainment simple so we can digest it quickly. Be sure television drama gives us easy 30-minute answers to life's questions, be sure pseudodocumentary films give us easy solutions to historical puzzles, be sure music makes for easy listening. Just be damned sure it doesn't take much thought.
Forget about aesthetic standards or worth; those values are for art. In the popular culture, the key is popularity, and success is measured in numbers that translate into dollars.
THE SECRET of that success is finding
the lowest common denominator, and the surveyors of popular culture do their utmost to go as low as possible to be as common as possible.
The immediate result: Faddists gain instant wealth while artists go broke.
But the long-term results are far more serious.
If popular culture obscures art, we become a nation without standards and thus a nation that no longer requires the best of itself and its people.
We become a nation that chooses not to be passive in the cyclic ideas that have met the popularity last year.
And, perhaps, as the willingness to always accept the easy alternative pervades all our actions, we become a nation that can no longer fail. But what are solutions to society's difficult problems.
Trashy books capitalize on morbid fascinations
A cloud of ghoulish fascination, avarice and exploitation has darkened the American consciousness. Tasteless efforts arise on morbidity and crime have increased in recent months.
Viking press has announced plans to publish a book about the fictional assassination of Sen. Edward Kennedy. His former sister-in-law, Jackie Kenney, Onassis, an Orasnis, was assigned in protest. Her resignation certainly is warranted.
The novel, by Englishman Jeffrey Archer, puts the last of the Kennedy brothers into the White House in 1880 and describes a plot to kill him. Thomas Guinzberg, Viking captain of a company has gone to extremes to make the book dignified. But the depiction of the murder of a man who has endured the assassinations of his two brothers never could be tastful. Such a literary attempt is disgusting. The fact that James Lance excuse for publishing the novel was that if he did not, someone else would.
NEW YORK TIMES critic John Leonard was right when he wrote, "There is a word for such a book. The word is trash." He fortunately informed the press that rash that has come off the presses in the past year.
Evelyn Keys, a has-been actress, has ground out a memoir *Better World* about her book, with the highly exploitive title, "Scarlett O'Rara's Younger Sister," is a hardcover one torrid al-fair after another.
Mary Mitchell
Editorial Writer
Not long after the death of Howard Hughes, his companion and body guard came up with the "true story" of the recusive billionaire. There also were the memoirs of Judith Exner, the woman who obtained O to be John F. Kennedy's mistress.
People will do anything for money. Last January, an entrepreneur of the worst sort, Lawrence Schiller, wangled his way into the jail where contemptous assault was imprinted. Schiller gained exclusive rights to Glimore's memoirs. Glimore became the first man to be executed in the United States in 10 years, and Schiller alone had the story of violence, which he witnessed.
Schiller is planning a movie, play and book about Gilmore. He will stand to benefit financially for his efforts. About the only market that Schiller did not corner was the T-shirt industry, which went wild selling Gary Gilmore T-shirts.
THE UNEXPECTED death of rock star Elvis Presley brought the same kind of morbid fascination. The day after his death, vendors were hawking T-shirts and pennants outside his Memphis mansion. This holiday about his life was published.
No endeavor is too outrageous or demeaning, if the price is
right. Athletes and movie stars walk out on their contracts for more money. Billy Carter exerted pressure to obtain a spectacle of himself. The lawyer for David Berkowitz, the man accused of the "Son of Murder" murders, offered to sell matches between him and his client.
Let us not forget that the Watergate conspirators have profited greatly from their accounts of their crimes. John Dean's book, "Blind Ambition," brings him a tidy sum. John Ehrlichman not only published his book, "The Company," but it to television for a movie shown earlier this season.
Even the Lance family is trying to profit from Bert's resignation. Lance's wife, a nurse, has signed the book, "This Too Shall Pass."
Even Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward capitalized on their success and did so without the President's Men," by coming out with the poorly constructed and not so well-constructed days. "Everyone has his price."
IT'S NOT JUST the publishers and fortune seekers who are at fault. These people never could succeed if the public did not thrive on such trash. Somewhere taste and smell, they tasteful efforts lose more money than they make.
Let us hope that there will be some limit to this surge of crass commercialism. Cashing in on deaths, crimes and unavory or deeds only dominates the culture and moral fiber of the public.
There was a time when films and literature were either fiction or nonfiction. A work was generally safe to read, but an author or reader knew where he stood. He generally was safe to accept the nonfiction as true, realizing that the fiction work was subservient to the creator's imagination.
Films exploit history's confusion
Today a third genre has been added. Neither fiction nor nonfiction can compete in the events. The characters may be recognizable, but any similarity with the truth is not the focus of the docu-drama is upon us.
Lynn Kirkman
Editorial Writer
"The Lincoln Conspiracy" is the most recent example of the doc-drama to be seen in Lawrence. It is a film that purportedly tells the true story behind the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, a story of "corruption, treachery and
coverup that cannot be found in any history book."
FROM SUNN CLASSIC Pictures—the wonderful folks who gave us "In Search of Noah" and "The Friendship" weaves the proverbal tangled web of planners in high places whose plan to kidnap Lincoln becomes a murder plot that will end up killing John Wilkes Booth. The film sets out to give us the "true facts" in the case, never considering that in the nature of fate, facts cannot be otherwise.
"The Lincoln Conspiracy" would have the viewer believe
that Booth was not killed in a fire after captors surrounded him in a barn. We are told, instead, that the bodies were deliberately misidentified, that Booth escaped without a trace and ended up, perhaps, in India and then in Cuba, where it included United States senators and Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's secretary of war.
TO BE SURE, there have been doubts about whether Booth acted alone and whether the whole story of Lincoln's assassination was known. Stanton's name has been mentioned throughout history as possibly having been involved in some phase of the case, but no proof is forthcoming of any events in contemporary American history have spawned a generation of people who are ready to cry "conspiracy" at every shocking event.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, almost a century after the death of Lincoln, created doubts in the minds of many people. The Warren Compton Lee Harvey Oswald managed the assassination on his own has not satisfied those Americans who believe that sinister forces were at work in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Thoughtful people and lawyers have common ground in calling for a renewed investigation of the events surrounding that day.
BUT IT TOOK AB-CTV to turn Lee Harvey Oswald into prime-time entertainment. On two nights earlier this fall, television viewers were treated to Oswald's life, the assassination and the trial that was never held because Jack Ruby shot
and killed Oswald in the Dallas police station two days after Kennedy's death.
Although Oswald's widow said she found the account to be fairly accurate, the film certainly seemed to be taken as fiction. Yet the press has recorded the reactions of viewers who believe the events occurred as a miracle and that babies are the same people who still believe that the earth is flat and that the films of the moon landings actually were shot in the California desert.
We believe in the admirable
w雪man, the Loch Ness monster
and unidentified flying objects.
May we believe that they may
believe in the Toufair Flyer.
But we have been in serious trouble since we lost the ability to distinguish between myth and reality and let the plea for recognition come our perception of history. Truth doesn't always make the entertainment, and TV and movie producers are, after all, in the entertainment business. If they have to shade the truth to make a better story, they'll use the public and be damned.
AMERICANS are notoriously trusting, despite cynics and skeptics who crop up from time to time. We want to be credulity leaves us susceptible to all types of con games.
SOMEDAY WE may know whether John Wilkes Booth was part of a larger conspiracy, whether Lee Harvey Oswald was paid by the CIA. But history is filled with mystery — the last Daphne—and must realize that there are some questions that may never be answered.
We also should realize that the answers, if we do get them, will come from careful investigation and research, not from the producers of popular entertainment who play on our natures to fatten their pocketbooks.
Marching bands as natural as bad taste
I was confident and excited when our band director got his
When I was younger I liked marching bands.
I was about 7 years old then,
and the only reason I endured
weekly piano lessons was the
promise that someday I would
get a trumpet—which might
be like a banjo or a vibrating
chang band like the one that
played for the jets and flags on
the late-night television signoff.
THE DREAM FINALLY
came true one fresh April
morning when I was in the
seventh grade.
On my ninth birthday, when I got that long-promised golden Conn Director, I was as close to heaven as possible for a 9-year-old boy. It meant no more琴 lessons and—if practiced very well and became very good—a chance to play in a marching band.
So far so good. I could whiz through "Dixieland on Parade." I could even march.
once-a-year whistle, led us out to the street and taught us how to walk in reasonably straight lines.
MISTASTE for marching bands was endurable in junior high, where we marched just
But then we had to march and play at the same time, and, from that moment on, I have always thought right then that it was utterly barbaric that I was being asked to make music while it was more than I could handle. I moved liping with my mouthpieces.
once a year. But then came high school and football half-time shows. My hate intensified.
First, there was the physical discomfort. I learned the misery of a mild-Austrian onion stick on ketchup made sticky by 100-degree heat. I learned how the marching band uniform that was so hot on balay September nights in slicing November winds.
I soon realized, however, that my campaign against marching bands would get nowhere unless I came up with less personal reasons for hating them. The other reasons were easy to find.
that marches are not flashy and popular enough for marching.
FIRST, THE MUSIC. Little is as thrilling as a fine band playing a classic Sousa march in sympathetic acoustical surroundings, but the current theory marching bands holds
To keep football fans happy, the theory goes, bands have to play marching-disco versions of everything from Cole Porter love songs to Bach chorales. Most desirable is recycled Potter 40 trush, and somehow the most inane pop songs become marching and classics, and Chase's "25 of it" or Chase's "G it On it" have been pummed to death in every high school and college in the nation. "Theme from Rock" is sure to follow.
The amazing amount of time it takes to perfect such drivel and the equally amazing success of outfitting a band (uniforms alone cost at least $150-200 each) can rob a school's music education program of the rehearsal time. The teachers need to educate students about music.
Punk's cancer spreading to America
Punks are alive and sick in England.
Youths, angry and frustrated with soaring unemployment for the young, are retaliating against Parliament with a movement that includes bizarre fashions, reckless music and violence. It's called the punk movement, and its cavernous effects already are being felt in America.
for a concert by the symphonic wind ensemble.
LATER THAT year, dissenting youths began doning tattered T-shirts held together by safety pins. Such dress was a protest against inflation, poverty and unemployment, according to most. The fashion industry denounced not only the economic situation but also the English way of life altogether. Although the dissenders were jumbed with left-over glitter queens, fad-hunters and fashion pandlers, the movement nonetheless was serious to English clothing being people were waging a cultural rebellion.
Men wore tight jeans, leather jackets and army fatigues and boots. Women wore high heels, gaudy black hose, satin short shorts and plastic footwear. Many dyeed their shoes in bright colors to disheard hair styles. Some scarred their bodies on stage. The tough look symbolized unrest and rebellion.
Unhappiness with England's economic plight has been fuelled by concern over the devaluation of the pound and ravenous inflation. By 1976, the value of the pound dropped to a new low, infiation reached a peak and unemployment for the young began to rise.
Most tried to express their views in the least expensive way. Why pay 10 pounds for a T-shirt screaming punk slogans when a pair of scissors cuts through it? Or what about something else? In fact, some punks excel in stealing.
THE SHABBY, mostly handmade clothing meant another thing; the refusal to accept a dress.
And it is those attendance statistics that create the need for marching bands and dictate what they will be.
Rick Thaemert Editorial Writer
The lead singer for the band, Johnny Rotten, said. "You can slap off England all you want. There's no patriotism anymore. I don't care if it blow: up. There's more tourists in London than Londoners. England's never been free. I'm surprise we aren't in jail for treason."
IF THE PUNKS are the mass of the movement, the Sex Pistols are the Pied Pipers. Their first two single records smack of political unrest—"Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen." The latter, a ruckmocky mace of the Queen, are dressed just in time for the Queen's Silver Jubilee.
The correspondent wrote, "The King's Road has never looked traished. Unless you get off on being knocked to the ground, having your purse or wallet stolen or maybe even being slapped up or kicked in the head, it may be best to steer them out of the way." But for a chic, for a few months here, until its adherents started cutting each other up with broken beer mugs and razor blades."
Rolling Stone magazine recently reported a scene on King's Road in London where youth gangs decked in '50s style leather and grease pillaged passersby.
AN EXAMPLE is the Sex Pistol's song,
so pretty, so pretty, so pretty vacant. And we
don't care if it's prettier than our eyes.
The music, called punk rock, is violent and as culturally jarring as the movement. Melodies often are unmelodic. Guitars are loud and raw and out of tune. Lyrics are apathetic and primal.
The fans follow suit. Pornographic T-shirts are popular, although they are now under scrutiny in some leagues. They may be the fans sport chains and badege clothing that hint at sado-masochism. Others wear safety pins through their ears, and noses and lips. Some fans read that读，“Hate,” or they wear a swatstica.
Striking parallels can be drawn between the current punk movement and the unrest of the '60s, when American youth dissented against the government's intervention in Vietnam.
ROLLING STONE reported that the majority of punk rock fans wore short hair and male clothing. Thus, every one appears to be one sex another protest, this time against sex roles. Others protest that love of perhaps is held by other punks. "Love of perhaps" minutes and fifty seconds of squalling noises."
The violence of the war was counteracted in protest by the preaching of love, peace and hope. The violence of the war was violent and hallucinogenic and acid music meant a way of expressing a new freedom for the young and an escape from reality. The music, long and powerful, was the norm. It was a challenge to the established war.
reflection of their unhappiness with and apathy for their progenitors' way of life.
One Sex Pistol guitarist exclaimed to the Rolling Stone, "This is a horrible country, England," then proceeded to drop his pants in a fleshy display.
Nor do they care for customers, scruples or tradition. On stage, the Sex St pistols spit at the audience and shout vulgarities at fans, who in turn throw beer on the group.
Already punk has surreptitiously invaded the States. Punk bands, sprouting in New York and California, have been signed by American recording companies hoping for more than fool's imagination, situations, at first repelled by the metallic fury on vinyl, have begun to give punk sounds airplay.
THE MUSIC is three-chord rock 'n' roll, but no matter how intrinsically apathetic and violent, it does pack energy and excitement. And it's different. No one knows what to expect. Screams, noises, belches, ballads—it all depends on what punk composers want to express at the time. There are no standards, but most punks just happen to have negative feelings. But, then, so did the blues singers.
MUCH THE SAME thing can be said of the punk movement. Violence, apathy and bizarre fashions—although these have always existed—have been a part of this movement. Olders of not-so-merry old England. Although
The media, too, have begun covering punk as a strange trend. No doubt exploitation will take place. Punk comes across as the National Enquirer of the music world. Consequently, it will make interesting reading for Americans. And some young readers will be influenced, striking the same fear in American parents' lives as it does in those across the sea.
MONEY WILL take it as a fashion or music
tune. Others will incorporate it into an already
digital one.
Will the movement become as prevalent in America? It's doubtful, because American youths do not harbor a volcano of unhappiness with the government's actions. But without question, the music and fashions will catch on somewhat.
Johnny Rotten often is tromoned nearby by English patriots, and the Sex Pistols have been banned in almost as many places as they've played, the movement thrives.
Punk here definitely will be a fad. A fad, for whatever reasons snatched on to, can grow to immense proportions and affect a lot of people. Because we know from experience there will have less furor than it did in England.
WHAT MARCHING BANDS do teach young people is the value of sameness. Every athlete must be members alike so no one can stand out when he is supposed to blend in as the tip of Florida on a map of the United States that stretches from goal line to goal line.
Onto this indignity is piled the insult of making music subservient to athletics.
Football provides the setting for a band, determining where and for how long the music will be played. The band's football at all compatible: Marching bands have never solved the problem of how to let more than half the people in a stand hear all the band at once.
BUT BAND DIRECTORS everywhere understandably bow to the limitations of stadium performances. Marching bands are unsurpassed as recruiting and public relations tools. At the University of Virginia, marching band shows a marching band shows in Memorial Stadium; 200 will show up in University Theatre
It would be un-American if 40,000 people could not have a cute and physically impressive hairstyle sidebar while wearing two quarters of mayhem. And it would go against the grain of American culture if marching bands, in trying to please 40,000 people, were noticed for anything more than their mass, power and cuteness.
For a time, though, my opinion of marching bands softened while I was in the Marching Jayhawks, an excellent marching band, as marching bands go.
But did I act on that well-developed hate? Not completely—I did my musical soul. Not only was I in a drum and bulge corps who was I in high school (free trips to Wisconsin and Chicago). I also played in KU$ 'n the hawks that mistaken me that I would lose my music scholarship if didn't.
But eventually I felt just as musically exploited as ever. True, fans love bands. However, their pleasure comes only after dozens of talented musicians who have skillful skills and musical integrity.
Only now, three years since I last marched, can I begin to objectively assess a marching band performance. For example, consider last Saturday's show.
ONCE I DEVELOPED my attack on marching bands, I survived my high school marching band only because the band director's views on the subject roughly equalled mine. His idea of a precision marching show was having the band march back and forth as a team against the Lots Blues"—just enough to please the principal, coaches and school board.
It was so cute.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
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